National Museum of Natural History Species of the Day Collection

Last updated 12 months ago

This Collection contains a complete archive of all creatures featured on the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History's "Species of the Day" feature on its home page (http://mnh.si.edu) since 20 April 2010. The sort field contains the month and day of the last time a creature was shown. Those shown more than a year ago have '999' in the sort field.

To nominate a species, please leave us a comment in the Newsfeed with your suggestion, including why you think it would make a great Species of the Day! If you can paste a link to the species you are interested in, that would also be helpful.

Wolbachia pipientis bacteria infect many insects, spiders, mites, isopods, and nematodes (roundworms), often manipulating the sex ratio of their hosts to their own benefit; some nematode parasites of humans seem to require infection by Wolbachia for their survival and reproduction.

Welwitschia belongs to a group of seed plants, the Gnetales, that share some striking similarities with the angiosperms (flowering plants), but are now believed clearly to be gymnosperms (the seed plant group including all the non-flowering plants).

Red foxes are the most widely distributed wild carnivores in the world, occurring in North America, Asia, Europe, and North Africa; they are also widespread in Australia, where they were introduced around 1850 so that fox-hunters would have something to hunt.

Shea Tree is native to the Sahel region of West Africa and is a key species in traditional agroforestry systems and an important source of edible oil (shea butter), which is derived from the seeds; shea butter is also used in cosmetics, skin emollients, and pharmaceuticals and has become increasingly popular outside Africa for these uses in the past several decades, increasing its value as a cash crop.

The White-eyed Vireo breeds in the eastern United States and northeastern Mexico and winters from the southeastern United States south to northern Central America; these small birds typically skulk in dense thickets in which they are often difficult to spot, but they produce a loud and distinctive song.

Fava (or Broad) Bean is a temperate crop which originated in the Mediterranean region or southwestern Asia, along with the Garden Pea, Lentil, and Chickpea (although the Fava Bean was probably domesticated later than these others).

This wasp has a reputation for packing an unusually potent sting, but in fact is not especially dangerous to people (except those allergic to bee and wasp venom) and is actually notably unaggressive away from its nest.

Bachman's Warbler, which bred in the bottomland forests and canebrakes of the southeastern United States and wintered almost exclusively in Cuba, was first collected by the Reverend John Bachman in South Carolina and formally described by his friend John James Audubon shortly thereafter in 1833; its existence was subsequently largely forgotten for half a century until it was rediscovered in the late 19th century and by the latter half of the 20th century it was headed toward extinction (the last undisputed sighting was of a single bird near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1962).

Vaccinium is a genus of around 500 species of deciduous and evergreen dwarf, prostrate, or erect shrubs, vines, and trees in the Ericaceae (heath family) that includes blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries, and bilberries.

In recent years the Polar Bear, which is featured in the NMNH Sant Ocean Hall, has become the “poster child” for organizations concerned about the impact of anthropogenic climate change on biodiversity.

Fiddler crabs are a group of around a hundred small, semi-terrestrial crabs in the genus Uca that are distinctive in the extreme size difference between the left and right claws in males; male fiddler crabs wave their "major claw" (the large claw) to attract females and repel male rivals.

Although tulips are closely associated in the minds of many with The Netherlands, various wild tulip species occur naturally in temperate regions across southern Europe and central Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East.

White Clover is one of the three-leafleted clover species that occasionally produces a leaf with four (or more) leaflets, i.e., a "four-leafed clover". It exhibits a well studied geographic polymorphism for cyanogenesis (the release of cyanide following tissue damage), with plants that do not produce cyanide predominating in colder climates for reasons that are not yet clear.

Water Chestnut is viewed by humans quite differently in different parts of the world: it is cultivated for food in Asia, it is a species of conservation concern in Europe and Russia, and in the northeastern United States, where it was introduced in the mid-1800s, it has spread widely and is viewed as a nuisance weed.

Archerfishes are best known for their ability to capture non-aquatic insects by shooting a jet of water with remarkable precision to knock their prey into the water, often as the prey sits on a perch above the fish.

The striking coloration of these grasshoppers is believed to be a warning to predators that they are toxic; when threatened, they display their bright red underwings, arch their abdomen, and march about.

Miracleberry is best known for its red berries, which contain a glycoprotein known as miraculin; miraculin has the remarkable property of modifying sour tastes into into sweet, although it is not itself sweet.

This remarkable shrimp lives within live sponges in large colonies consisting of a single breeding female “queen” and typically 100 or more non-breeding workers that jointly defend the sponge against intruders.